World number one and top seed Roger Federer was crushed 6-3 6-2 by unseeded American Mardy Fish in the Indian Wells Masters semi-finals.

Federer lost to an American player for the first time in 42 matches when he was crushed 6-3 6-2 by Fish in a match lasting just over an hour at Indian Wells Tennis Garden.

Fish, who had never beaten Federer in five previous meetings, outplayed the Swiss on a sun-drenched afternoon to book a place in Sunday's final against third-seeded Serb Novak Djokovic.

"It feels pretty good," Fish, 26, said in a courtside interview. "I couldn't have dreamed up a better scenario than that.

"You guys are getting right behind me and I thank you so much for that," he added, pointing at the crowd packed around the Stadium Court.

Ranked 98th in the world, Fish set the tone for the biggest win of his career by breaking Federer in the second game before sweeping through the opening set in 34 minutes.

With the 26-year-old Federer strangely out-of-sorts and Fish in prime form, the American again broke in the first and fifth games of the second before serving out to secure victory in the eighth.

"I have a great record against him and I have always controlled matches against him," Federer said. "Today was different, a tough result. He came up playing very, very well.

"He took everything on the rise and hit winners. I just couldn't get to his second serve and that was the disappointing part of today."

Djokovic, meanwhile, stormed into the final with a comprehensive 6-3 6-2 victory over Rafael Nadal.

The match was a repeat of last year's final which was won by Nadal, but this contest was dominated by the Serb who looked much fresher throughout.

Nadal survived three set contests against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and James Blake earlier in the tournament but those matches finally caught up with him in the Californian heat.

The Spaniard also had to play the match with a blister on his left big toe which was troubling enough for him to call out the trainer at the end of the first set.

However, it all looked as if it was going to be so different from Nadal early on, as he actually got the first break of the match in just the third game of the contest.

However, he failed to build on that momentum as Djokovic broke straight back in the very next game and after his early slip-up, the Serb then became basically unplayable on his serve.

The world number three was 25/31 when he got his first serve in, which was more often than not (63%), and he also started to chip away on Nadal's service games too.

One tactic that really seemed to work for him was picking on Nadal erratic backhand, while he also produced some great backhands himself, even going as far as to winning one point after having dropped his racket.

He needed a little bit of luck off the net cord to get the second break of the first set though, as his clipped shot saw Nadal fire into the net from close range on break point which put Djokovic 5-3 up.

The Serb then served out the set and picked up a massive hold in the fourth game of the second set which really gave him the momentum to go on and win the match.

In that crucial game he went from 40-0 up to an advantage down, but he then managed to save the break point before going on to win the game.

He wouldn't lose another game in the match as he broke Nadal twice in succession, with the second break coming in another see-saw game.

Nadal had come back from 15-40 down to level matters with two superb winners in a row but again Djokovic managed to stay focused and delivered on a third break point.

He then served out the match to 15.

With Nadal having won this tournament last year, he will lose more ranking points, meaning that Djokovic edges ever closer to the world number two spot.

Seán Fay / Eurosport / Reuters